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Miles
Miles, labeled The Angsty Musician, is a contestant on Total Drama Lakeside. He was placed on the Killer Wildcats team. Biography Miles, who has always been a musically-inclined person, formed a garage band when he was in high school, then got to college and continued making music. For a while, it seemed he was destined for great things - he was not only making music but studying music theory, and his band was accumulating a decently-sized fanbase. He was also in a relationship with a girl named Jackie he had met in a high school math class, who he was deeply in love with. Although the two went to college in different states, Miles kept motivated by thinking about her, writing music about her, and inviting her to his various shows around campus. One day towards the tail end of his freshman year, right before he and his band were to perform an important gig, word got out via text that Miles's girlfriend was cheating on him and he learned this the hard way. Miles was inconsolable, so he immediately canceled his gig, went to his room, and didn't leave for at least 48 hours. Ever since then, for the past two years, Miles's outlook on life has taken a turn for the worse - he drastically changed his fashion sense and got a couple ill-advised tattoos and piercings, he smokes weed and vapes constantly, he has almost no motivation, and he spends most of his time making poorly-produced beats on a music streaming site as opposed to playing with his band. Although he's definitely depressed, he has also constructed a sort of persona around being sad, to the point where it consumes his whole being and he voluntarily labels himself as a "sadboy." He doesn't seem to want to get out of the funk, as it's just routine at this point, and has been resorting to hooking up with random strangers to fill the void his former girlfriend left. Miles's few remaining friends made him a tape for Total Drama because they were worried about him and wanted him to get out of his apartment for once. Total Drama Lakeside Miles was one of the last contestants to arrive to the competition, and upon his arrival he instantly started vaping. Christian attempted to bond with him over their mutual love of vaping but was met with a hostile response, and Miles subsequently said a few slightly alarming things about his mental health. In the confessional, he described how his friends made him go on the show to get over his ex, Jackie, who had broken up with him two years prior. It was immediately clear that Miles was not over Jackie in any way, as even the most inconsequential, mildly polite gestures from any female contestants such as Kelsey brought him to the verge of tears. At the end of the episode, Miles was placed on the Killer Wildcats. While moving in, Miles took out a Polaroid of him and Jackie and stuck it on the wall next to his new bed, which caught the attention of Graham. Miles instantly got defensive, but he and Graham then had a short-lived conversation about the perils of love and started to bond. In the first part of the first challenge, a footrace, Miles refused to put in any effort and was just weakly walking and listening to music, which earned the ire of his teammates. Nearly everything that any of his teammates did just continued to remind him of Jackie, and he particularly developed a one-sided rivalry with Christian, who reminded him of the man Jackie had cheated on him with. Due to his antisocial and gloomy behavior, Miles was almost voted off at the first elimination ceremony but was spared in favor of Isabella. The next morning, while all the other Wildcats were doing yoga and socializing, Miles was lying face-down in the grass and moaning. He continued to talk to Graham (mostly about Jackie), but figured he was just pitying him rather than actually wanting to be his friend. As the challenge progressed, he started bonding with Rachel over nature and art. They spent the rest of the day together, and right before elimination, Miles admitted in the confessional he felt fresh and revitalized around her, not knowing she had no romantic feelings for him. After surviving the elimination ceremony, Miles asked Graham if he could set him up with Rachel—which prompted a flustered response from Graham, as he'd known about Rachel's lack of interest. Regardless, he continued gushing over her, saying she was a "new dawn" compared to all his other failed post-Jackie endeavors. At the challenge, much to his chagrin, he wasn't allowed to pick his partner and was paired up with Erica. She attempted to bond with him in the canoe but instead just overshared about her personal life, complete with an anecdote about cheating on her boyfriend, which caused Miles to fly into a rage and chuck a water balloon at her head. A livid Erica decided she was done talking to him, and he admitted privately that Erica reminded him of Jackie. Rachel approached Miles the next day, planning to tell him that she wasn't interested in dating him, but the conversation was interrupted by Chris on the loudspeaker. The two of them were paired up in the first volleyball match against Kaitlin and Suvir, and it ended horribly when Kaitlin threw the ball at his groin. Rachel took pity on Miles after this incident and finally decided to tell him how she felt while taking a walk. Once she told him she wasn't in love with him and just wanted to be friends, he was shell-shocked and couldn't respond coherently, running away while sobbing and then listening to Truck Seat Backrest. The Wildcats lost the challenge and headed back to their dorm to see Miles curled up in his bed vaping. Graham attempted to reason with him about his feelings, but at the same time Erica announced she was voting out Rachel and a scorned Miles jumped at this possibility. After Miles voted, Rachel approached him once more and elaborated that she wasn't interested because she knew he wasn't over Jackie. Now blaming Jackie instead of Rachel for all this, Miles apologized and reconciled with her... but she was voted out anyway, prompting his deep regret. Miles refused to discuss Rachel's elimination the morning after, telling everyone to let him "stew in his sadness." In the first part of the advertising challenge, he sat in the back and did nothing, but was eventually coaxed out to play his guitar and attempt to raise money. His performance was quickly interrupted by a strange bearded man, who came up to him, gave him a few cryptic threats, then left, to his utter confusion. That night, Miles unsurprisingly dreamt about Jackie and discussed his dream with the team at the mess hall the next morning, but got a shockingly curt response from everyone, even Graham. Despite that, Graham picked him to play the lead role (obviously inspired by Graham himself) in the Wildcats' play for the challenge. Very few of his female teammates wanted to kiss him, so Erica volunteered for the female lead due to her love of the spotlight. He expressed anxiety at the idea of performing in front of a whole auditorium, but was excited to recite his dramatic monologue (intended for Jackie, even if said to Erica). The rehearsal went relatively smooth until the audience started filling up, and to Miles's disbelief and horror, in walked Jackie herself—with the bearded man who had heckled him at the snack shack. An anxiety-plagued Miles tried to quit his role and leave the auditorium, but was sat down by Erica and given a half-hearted pep talk about how he needed to stop pitying himself and identifying as a "sadboy." Miles apprehensively agreed to perform in the play, saying he'd go out with a bang even if the Wildcats lost. Sure enough, the play hit and Miles walked into the audience and towards Jackie to deliver his climactic monologue. This prompted no response other than her new boyfriend Daniel telling him to "hop off," so he ran off the stage in tears. Somehow, despite all this, Chef adored the skit and the Wildcats still won the challenge. In the lobby, Miles approached Jackie and Daniel. Jackie seemed to have almost no reaction to their reunion after two years, and the conversation got even awkward when Daniel started saying oblique things and Miles blew up at him. Miles attempted to reassure Jackie that he had dated at least six other girls since her and was completely over everything, but she once again shrugged it off and left to go out to dinner with Daniel. In the confessional, Miles realized that even though he had been wanting to do that for two years, he felt the exact same. Sure enough, that night at elimination, even though the Wildcats won the challenge, Miles quit the game. He told Chris and the other contestants that he had joined the show to get over Jackie, and finally realized that she had moved on and he had to as well—even though he hadn't yet finished moving on, he figured he had made progress and going home and getting a therapist was the best next step. Miles said goodnight and goodbye to his teammates, hugging Graham, Kelsey, and Erica, and left the lakeside. Trivia *Miles's original names were Liam and Milo. *The character who eventually became Miles was originally going to be a SoundCloud rapper parody, named something ridiculous like "Lil Phuck." I felt like as funny as that'd be, it'd be a one-joke character, and Miles' shtick would provide more versatility. *Miles's ex, Jackie, was named after multiple indie songs - "Jacqueline" by Tracyanne & Danny and "Jackie" and "Jackie, Dressed in Cobras" by The New Pornographers. **Many other random lines of Miles's referenced indie lyrics as well, primarily those of Dan Bejar of the New Pornographers and Spencer Krug (who has also mentioned a "Jackie" in various songs). *I briefly considered making Miles and Rachel an actual couple, but figured they worked best as friends and didn't want to pair Miles off with anyone new. *Miles was conceived as a purely one-dimensional joke character who would've been the 2nd contestant voted off. I ended up really liking him, though, and wanted to do his plot justice. Similar to what I did with Boris, I also felt like only using him as a punching bag was low-hanging fruit. *I debated getting rid of Miles for every chapter in the pre-merge after the first two, until I decided Jackie showing up for the skit challenge was the best-case scenario. *Miles was partially inspired by phases I myself have gone through, primarily during the end of 2016 and first half of 2017. The fixation on calling himself a "sadboy" was a nod to this. Gallery MilesSwim.png|Miles in his swimwear. MilesSleep.png|Miles in his sleepwear.